Frequently Asked Questions

Essential Information

Frequently Asked Questions about The MiNE Project:

1What is "Mining as a Service"?

Inspired by the blooming industry of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) we have created Mining-as-a-Service (MaaS). Instead of purchasing a classical mining contract and remaining stuck with the same coin, same hashrate and same hardware (see video), you purchase in a service token that secures your share of a diversified, ever-expanding and constantly optimized mining operation. Mining-as-a-service differs from cloud mining in two crucial ways – it can compensate for the increase in mining difficulty through reinvestment strategies and it is optimized for profitability using scripting and advanced mining strategies. You receive monthly mining results in proportion to the tokens you hold. The results are transferred directly into your Ethereum-compatible wallet through the use of a smart contract.

2How does The MiNE operation work (in plain English, please)?

#1: You purchase TMI service tokens – we purchase the mining hardware and set up The MiNE. In exchange for blocking your token, you receive mining results.
#2: We run and manage the entire industrial-scale mining operation on your behalf, keeping it agile, competitive and profitable through reinvestment, hardware upgrades and constant optimization. You keep receiving results for as long as you keep your tokens blocked into your Mining Dashboard.
#3: Mining results are automatically distributed to token holders in ETH via a smart contract.

3What are MiNE Tokens and how do they work?

MiNE tokens are hardware-backed service tokens, which can be used to access TheMiNE’s cryptocurrency mining services and their results. The tokens are distributed with the initial purpose of funding our project. Once bought and held, the tokens can appreciate in value and will distribute mining results automatically at the end of each month.
TMI tokens are issued on the Ethereum platform, as ERC-20 compliant tokens.

4What is the price of a MiNE Token ?

We chose to peg the MiNE token to 1 US Dollar.
Therefore, 1 TMI Token = 1 USD during the ICO.
During the presale, you will receive bonuses – please refer to this table for more info.

5What happens to unsold tokens?

Unsold tokens will be burned, as per our smart contract, so as to maintain fairness and keep the value of the token backed up by real contribution and real underlying assets.

6Where and how can I store my MiNE tokens?

Any Ethereum wallet that is ERC-20 compatible can be used for storing and transferring MiNE tokens.
We strongly encourage you to use one of the following options:

In order to receive MiNE tokens resulting from the initial token sale, you must be in full control of your wallet and the corresponding private keys. Please DO NOT USE your cryptocurrency exchange account to send your initial coin contribution!

7What should I expect?

A stress-free solution for mining cryptocurrencies

Results are automatically distributed - paid in ETH at the end of each month.

We take care of everything, from the setup to monitoring, intervention and upgrades.

A completely transparent solution that allows you to see your results via a dashboard.

A democratic operation that allows you to vote on major project milestones.

8What are the problems you are addressing and solving with Mining as a Service?

As mining difficulty and competition grow, our business model was thought out to stay agile, competitive, and, most importantly lucrative. If you were to do the mining yourself, this would require significant amounts of time, energy, know-how and capital to achieve the same results.

9What are the strengths of this operation?

Located & Incorporated inside EU & NATO borders: strong laws & law enforcement + an added layer of security.
Low overhead costs: cheap rent and labor (cheapest in the EU), ultra low-cost electricity, special deals with hardware manufacturers, economy of scale (buying in bulk for lower prices).
Small profit margins: compared to any other operation, we have the lowest margins on the market, ensuring as much profit as possible for token holders.
Continuously optimized for maximum profitability: to stay on top of the mining game, we employ all tactics that can help us optimize our costs – having our own dedicated mining pool, overclocking and undervolting the hardware to ensure maximum output, running profit scripts to determine the most profitable coins to mine every hour, dedicated pools, coin arbitrage etc. (see Whitepaper for more information)
Small & efficient team – we are proud of the fact that we have an ideally-sized team that is truly efficient. We only hire the people we truly need, and everything else we subcontract when there is a spike in demand. By comparison, most ICOs huge teams that imply huge salary costs. Also, Eastern European salaries are significantly lower than those in Western Europe, US or Canada, for example.
Agility & adaptability – our business plan is though out so that we stay on top of the mining game, even though mining difficulty keeps growing and competition grows every single day. This is why The MiNE reinvests 30% of mining results into new hardware and there is dedicated staff for new hardware deployment, maintenance & uptime monitoring, as well as procurement and optimization.

10Is the operation safe and secure? What can you tell me about security measures?

Funds will be kept offline – the major part of mined coins will be kept in cold storage (on hardware wallets) which will be stored in banks, in value deposit boxes. Offline funds cannot be stolen via cyber-attacks.
Offline mining operation – our mining pools are internal (only intranet IPs, no extranet access), which means that our “miners” are not accessible from the internet, and thus not vulnerable to DDoS attacks.
All physical access to our mining farms will guarded 24/7/365 and access will require two people to grant remote access.
Encrypted VPN communication will be the standard route for all remote management of our mining systems.
Constant monitoring: all mining equipment is under constant monitoring by dedicated staff.
Regular security audits will be performed by third-party accredited cybersecurity specialists. The audits include not only the entire network, but also the token contract.
Insurance: because at the end of the day nothing is invulnerable and infallible, it is definitely a good idea to benefit from insurance.

11What kind of guarantees are there that this is a legit operation?

The project’s business model has been validated by the Blockchain industry at the D10 conference (see video), where it has won 2nd place and an initial investment $50,000. The project has also attracted two subsequent waves of investment from private investors (Project MiNE Alpha).
The tokens are backed up by real hardware –tokens are used to purchase the mining hardware.
The smart contract is executed automatically once launched, and it contains all the rules for token emission, all the security rules and the rules for token distribution, guaranteeing the fact that you will get your mining results distributed automatically.
The company is incorporated in Malta. Our operational offices are open to visitors during work hours.
Transparency is of utmost importance. At any given point in time, as member you will have access to live streaming cameras, a Mining Dashboard monitoring our mining results and complex reports containing all the relevant information.

12Why is it a good idea to participate in this operation?

Here are some of the reasons to participate and the main benefits of The MiNE operation:

Stress-free, hassle-free and hands-free: mining as a service is a turn-key solution to getting your share of the results of an industrial-scale diversified cryptocurrency mining operation.

You enjoy the results only: once you have purchased and blocked your tokens, there is no maintenance, no monitoring or anything to worry about. The operation is entirely managed by a team of experts on your behalf. Their job is to keep everything running smoothly while optimizing the output and expanding the operation to make it even more agile and competitive.

More profitable than Solo Mining or Cloud Mining: as outlined in our explainer video, Solo Mining is much more than a full-time job nowadays, and cloud mining contracts don’t respond to the need of keeping up with mining difficulty. With tokenized mining, you are part of a fully managed industrial-scale mining operation whose main objective is to adapt to the environment every single day.

Self-expanding, self-sustaining business model: in order to stay agile, competitive and, most importantly, profitable, The MiNE needs to expand, upgrade and optimize its hardware and software to keep up with mining difficulty. We have a dedicated team who does just that.

Managed by experts, fast intervention: to ensure maximum uptime and that everything runs smoothly, we have dedicated staff who take care of every single aspect of the mining operation. With solo mining or cloud mining, you do not have access to such a privilege.

13What is the minimum contribution?

During the pre-sale, the minimum contribution would be $2,000 USD and contributors receive a personalized bonus, depending on their contribution amount. For the private pre-sale, the minimum contribution is $50,000 and you will need to contact us for a personalized offer.
During the ICO itself, the minimum contribution is 0.2 ETH, and the bonus structure can be viewed here.
At the moment, contributions can be made directly in ETH and BTC, or fiat currencies can be exchanged via wire transfer or credit card payment using our partner service CryptoCoin.pro

14How will The MiNE keep up with increasing mining difficulty?

Hardware upgrades: 30% of all net profits resulting from mining will be constantly reinvested into new hardware, while old hardware is resold before its price drops significantly.
Industrial-grade ASIC hardware: The MiNE is already investing in ASIC technology that cannot be bought in the retail sector.
Special deals with hardware manufacturers: we have dedicated staff who monitor prices and keep a constant flow of communication with wholesalers all around the world in order to secure the best deals for GPU, FPGA and ASIC mining hardware.
Constant optimization: profitability is optimized using both automatic scripts and human intervention. Our mining manager will be in charge of optimizing the output of the entire operation. Hardware performance and electricity consumption, for example, are optimized by overclocking and undervolting the equipment.

15Which currencies do you mine?

Short answer: the ones that are most profitable at the moment.
Of course, we all have a preferred coin. But this is a business, and the main objective is to ensure maximum output distribution to token holders.
To achieve this goal, what we do is diversified mining. Our analysts and bots find the most profitable coins to mine and our automated systems switch to them every hour. For more information and a list of possible cryptocurrency mining examples, please refer to our Strategy section.
We manage and treat the mining portfolio in the exact same way as an investment portfolio – diversifying risk and rewards with:

Industrial-grade ASICs

Multiple generations of GPUs (because different coins/algorithms respond differently to different hardware)

Master-nodes

Data Mining

In short, the operation is optimized and diversified according to algorithms to ‘hunt’ for the most profitable mining activities and switch to them every hour.

16Where is The MiNE located and incorporated?

Both incorporation and the physical location of The MiNE are within NATO and EU borders. That means proper EU regulation, strong legislation and an added layer of security. Our office is located in the city center of Bucharest, Romania, Eastern Europe. Our mining farms are located outside of Bucharest near hydroelectric plants. The company is incorporated in Malta, one of the jurisdictions with the strongest cryptocurrency legislation in the EU. We have chosen to incorporate in Malta because we wanted to give the operation the legitimacy it deserves, and to attract serious institutional investors.

17Is The MiNE eco-friendly?

The short answer is: yes, as much as humanly possible.
The major part of the energy we use is renewable, coming from hydroelectric plants which makes it both cheaper and greener.
The hardware is undervolted, lowering electricity consumption by as much as 30%, which means less energy wasted.
The heat produced by the hardware is not wasted, but instead treated as an asset and reused by directing it to nearby greenhouses that need it to grow plants.

18Who can participate?

Contributions are accepted from the entire Globe, with the notable exception of the United States and all other jurisdictions where ICOs are forbidden at the time of our launching.
At the moment, it is impossible to register an ICO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States. Therefore, all American citizens who participate in ICOs do it through overseas partnerships and arrangements.

19What are the accepted forms of payment?

At the moment, tokens can be purchased using BTC and ETH, or exchanged from fiat currencies via CryptoCoin.pro using wire transfer or credit card purchases. We will post a video tutorial showing you how to buy MiNE tokens in a few easy steps, even if your funds are in fiat currencies and you need to convert them to cryptocurrency.

20What is the KYC process?

The KYC (Know Your Customer) ensures that we do not do business with funds received from terrorist organizations or other illicit activities.
The KYC process is conducted by a third party authorized by the Malta Government Regulator and requires users to provide some personal identification information. The data is safely kept, according to EU data protection laws.
Although it is not specifically required, “it is better to be safe than sorry”, and our philosophy is to always choose the most legitimate route to run our business.

21How do I start?

Sign up to our Newsletter to make sure you're up to date on the project timeline and vital details.

Join the Whitelist – to make sure you are ready to start at any time when the gates open.

Contribute by sending BTC/ETH during the pre-sale / sale / ICO.

At the end of the ICO you receive the MiNE tokens, which in turn allow for mining results to be paid at the end of each month in ETH, automatically into your ERC20-compliant wallet.

Sit back, relax, watch the dashboard, enjoy the results.

But first and foremost, make sure you subscribe to our e-mail updates, in order to keep track of our project.

Long story short:

We offer complete, fully managed and constantly optimized crypto-mining services, all accessible through the MiNE token.